Switching out Axxera AVM70

[mgunnin]

I have a toggle switch on the dash just behind the shifter lever. I can rest my hand on the shifter. The switch is at my finger tips. I can use it with out taking my eyes off the road.
Switch up rear camera is constantly on and I can operate the side camera with the directional signals and when it cycles I am back to rear camera. (Many complained that that could not be done)
I can change the switch and I am at the main screen of the radio. I prefer this over having two or more monitor. The 10" screen gives me a much wider rear view than the previous unit. I have seen others use a separate monitor that is no larger than the old unit. I like my set up. It works for me perfectly. It may not be for everyone, but I am very satisficed. My dash area is not full obstructions. One screen that provides all that I need.

[Dan-sr@perra-us.net]

Originally Posted by Rysiek

Everything looked good until I discovered that I have 2 extra wires coming from the factory Molex adapter? I do not know where they should be connected to? One wire is White (Front Left), and the other wire is Grey/Black (Front Right (-).*They both are speaker wires. What is confusing is the fact that I already have White and Grey/Black speaker wires connected to Atoto wire harness. Should I connect these two to the other 2 wires? Today, I need to go to the storage and bench test the radio in my motorhome by plugging in everything the way it is now in order to see if this will work.

Do you have any suggestions as to where these 2 wires should be connected to?

Where were that wires connected on the old radio?

[Dice]

Originally Posted by RC Osborne

I have a Thor ACE 27.2 2017

I am going to switch out my Axerra Radio and use it as a paper weight or for target practice. I am still researching the Pioneer, Jensen and Sony options. Suggestions welcome. It has rear and side cameras and I want Apple Car Play.

My question is, how hard it is to install myself? I am handy, but far from a mechanic. I was a firefighter and learned a lot working on fire engines, but again, not a technician. It looks like some of it is plug and play and that other than fitting the new radio system into the slot, it is red wire to red wire kind of stuff. For those of you who have already done this am I right? I would love to save a little on installation since we are also looking at getting some new tires soon.

RC

I will join you on the range with mine. I could use the same advice

[Dice]

I am with RC on this one !!! I have a 2020 Thor Challenger with a useless Axxera which is the biggest pc of junk I have ever seen. I want to replace it ASAP and actually get some use out of it. I could use a recommendation on what might work as a reasonable replacement if someone has already done it. Right now it take up space on the dash not working and I don't want to deal with extended Warranty. Can't be difficult just have to take your time watch the power wires with a meter. Modular plugs can be changed to fit the new radio if necessary easily available on Amazon.

[mgunnin]

WOW!
This is the longest going thread I have ever seen.
Everyone has an opinion as to the replacement unit to get and to the difficulty of replacing a unit.
There are dozens of different issues people have had with the same brand and model coach.
I decided to purchase an inexpensive unit because I have a Vegas 27.7. Not a high-end unit in the first place and I really do not need a high-end stereo when traveling. I am entertained by the beautiful countryside.
I purchased the XDCPA11BT with a 10" monitor from Wal-Mart for $210.00. You can purchase a four-year extended warranty for $45.00.
It has a much wider range of view than the factory unit. (LOVE IT)
Considering all the advice you will get here find someone near you with experience and give them a copy of all the crazy advise given here and let them spend about two-three hours and you can drive away fat and happy without the frustration everyone else seems to have had.
GOD BLESS WHAT's LEFT OF THE USA!

[Dan-sr@perra-us.net]

Originally Posted by mgunnin

WOW!
This is the longest going thread I have ever seen.
Everyone has an opinion as to the replacement unit to get and to the difficulty of replacing a unit.
There are dozens of different issues people have had with the same brand and model coach.
I decided to purchase an inexpensive unit because I have a Vegas 27.7. Not a high-end unit in the first place and I really do not need a high-end stereo when traveling. I am entertained by the beautiful countryside.
I purchased the XDCPA11BT with a 10" monitor from Wal-Mart for $210.00. You can purchase a four-year extended warranty for $45.00.
It has a much wider range of view than the factory unit. (LOVE IT)
Considering all the advice you will get here find someone near you with experience and give them a copy of all the crazy advise given here and let them spend about two-three hours and you can drive away fat and happy without the frustration everyone else seems to have had.
GOD BLESS WHAT's LEFT OF THE USA!

Regardless of how expensive or cheep a new radio is you will still have to deal with the hassle of installing it. If you have a Class B or C based on a common chassis some place like Chruchfield at https://www.crutchfield.com/ will be able to supply a harness to connect up the new unit. For those of us that have Class A motorhomes built on a stripped chassis like the ford F53 you have to engineer the wiring connections yourself. There are two radio replacements that are designed specifically for RV these are:

Kenwood DNX775RVS Navigation Receiver
Pioneer AVIC-W8600NEX

I just purchased the Kenwood Unit from Crutchfield for just under $1,000.00 over Christmas Normal list price is about $1,700.00 currently listed at Crutchfield for about $1,300.00. I few days ago I found that Camping World still had it listed for the $1,000.00 price.

I just intend to splice the New Kenwood harness into the original wiring. The first step in that is verify the wire colors comparing the old AXXERA wiring to the new Kenwood. I created an Excell spread sheet listing out each of the wires / functions identifying the wire color coding using the install manuals for each of the radios. It turns out that most of the wires are color coded the same between both units. The only differences are functions that do not have analogs on the other unit or functions that are not used on my chassis like steering wheel radio controls. One of the reasons I chose the Kenwood unit is that it will be able to display engine operating data from the chassis ODB2 connection and RV compatible navigation data customized for my RV like height, weight, and length. The one frustration is that neither radios documentation lists out the plug pin numbers associated with Molex connector that plugs into the back of the radio. Both radios appear to have the same size and number of connector pin positions. When I do get into the actual work, I intend to document the process and publish it on this forum.

[Rysiek]

Originally Posted by Dan-sr@perra-us.net

Where were that wires connected on the old radio?

Dan,
This probably will sound really dumb but I thought that since I already have white and black/white wires connected to the soeakers I should ignore the other two. And, if some speakers will not work I will deal with that later. My main focus was on getting the other wires identify and correctly connected.That was last week. Now, moving forward.
I took my old radio out of the RV's dashboard, disconnected the old harness to see what type of harness the factory used. It is a 12 pin Molex adapter. I wrote down the colors of the wires and pinouts order and created my own 12 pin adapter for new radio.

The new radio Atoto S8 Ultra Plus head unit came with 20 pin wire harness. I was able to determine which wires I will not need since I do not have steering controls, amp or power antenna.
Here they are:
*- 2 wires labeled Steering Wheel Keys (orange/black and brown/black)

- 1 wire labeled Power Antenna (blue)

- 1 wire labeled Amplifier (blue/white)

Then, there are 4 wires coming out of new radio pigtail which were connected directly to factory wiring as follows:

- 1 wire Accessory/Ignition (+) - red

- 1 wire Rear Camera (+) - pink

- 1 wire Constant Battery Power (+) - yellow

- 1 wire Chassis Ground (-) - black
The rest of the wires were inserted into Molex connector. I plugged everything in, and the radio powered up successfully. I hooked up the antenna, video cable from video switcher to operate backup and side cameras. Everything worked fine except... I HAD NO SOUND!!!

I have contacted technical support. They suggested several things but nothing would help. I watched tens of videos on You Tube and found no solution yet.

Yesterday, after another email from technical support I did more testing.
Test 1 - all speaker wires hooked up, no sound
Test 2 - USB flash drive hooked up, no sound
Test 3 - phone paired, playing music - no sound
Test 4 - phone hooked up thru USB port - no sound
Test 5 - purchased brand new external car speakers, disconnected Front LT+ & Front LT - ( white and striped white/black and hooked up the wires directly to external speaker - no sound

At his point I have no idea what else can be done.*They suggested unplugging the wires from Molex and trying to connect each pair of speaker wires directly to the external speaker. That is the last thing I can do. If this does not work then in their opinion, either the preamplifier or the plug's wires are faulty. In such a case U will be sending the head unit back and getting replacement.

Now, going back to the beginning of my lenghty post there is an issue of these 2 extra wires. I need to check the old plug and see where they were hooked up to. Any other suggestions?

[Rysiek]

Originally Posted by Dan-sr@perra-us.net

Where were that wires connected on the old radio?

The old Axxera harness had only 11 wires going to chassis 12 pin Molex connector. One pin was empty. One of the white wires went to black, and the black/grey striped wire went to red.
Wait a minute. Should I splice the black and white wire as well as black/grey striped and red? That never occurred to me since I took these 2 extra wires as speaker wires. Maybe they play different roles here? Well, I know what I will be doing tomorrow.[emoji16]

[Rysiek]

Well, the problem has been solved. The 12 pin Molex connector needs only to have 10 wires from new radio harness connected. And the yellow (constant battery) chassis wire needs to be hooked up to orange (dimmer/illumination) wire of the new radio harnes. And of course black ground goes to black and red power hoes to red. That was it. I never thought I need to connect yellow & orange together but that is how Molex on mine Axis was setup. I just hooked up one speaker and the radio sound was on.
Tomorrow I will solder all wires , organize the other wires which run all over the places. Label some of them. And, because part of the dashboard was removed I will soundproof that area as well as build some type of framing, which will make the top of the dashboard stop moving and squeaking so mach. Now I know why. The entire driver side top part of the dashboard was not attached to anything! I had a floating dashboard!!! But you will hear about that project in another post. I will post the new radio install photos when I am done.
Thank you all for taking your time by trying to help me.[emoji3]

[ericmac450]

Originally Posted by BaBa

In our 2022 FW31W, the camera switch is a separate device. It is a RVS-501N-3 (https://www.rearviewsafety.com/safet...-rvs-501n.html) mounted directly behind the radio. I replaced the factory installed AVM2207S within the first month of owning the RV as it was often failing to power up. When it did power up, the LCD screen was unreadable in daylight from the driver's seat. Swapped it out for a Kenwood eXcelon DMX907S which works beautifully. Tip: purchase the correct installation kit, a Metra 95-5860G which is how Thor should have done the original installation.... The Thor installation was a complete hack job with mangled metal brackets, bare wiring and splices improperly done, etc.

I have a 2021 Thor E450 Class C. Before I dive in, my biggest question was if Thor actually used a wiring harness to hook up the current radio or they just hacked up the ford harness. From the sounds of yours it sounds like it could go either way. I guess the only way for me to know for sure it to pull the dash out and check.

Edit to add: from the looks of it, mine already has the Metra 95-5860G from Thor but I'm not sure about the wiring harness.

[MiniBike Mikes Garage]

For those that have pulled their Axxera unit, what tool did it take? We have a Thor 22eq on a Ford E-350 chassis. I don’t see any holes in the Axxera to use the pin type removal tools.

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by MiniBike Mikes Garage

For those that have pulled their Axxera unit, what tool did it take? We have a Thor 22eq on a Ford E-350 chassis. I don’t see any holes in the Axxera to use the pin type removal tools.

Did you look in the Axxera manual for your model? Most require a flat removal tool on the sides to release catches on the Double-DIN cage after the faceplate has been removed. Many just use two butter knives.

Removing the faceplate may be more difficult on the E350 - there are threads here on the Forum detailing the dash panel removal process.

[Bob Nodine]

Originally Posted by MiniBike Mikes Garage

For those that have pulled their Axxera unit, what tool did it take? We have a Thor 22eq on a Ford E-350 chassis. I don’t see any holes in the Axxera to use the pin type removal tools.

My experience with our 2021 E-450 chassis tells me that the Axxera can only be removed by pulling away the face of the dash. I could be wrong because we did not actually remove the unit but needed to get behind it to plug in a cable that the factory forgot. I looked at removing the bezel first but did see a way to do that. A search on the forum said to pull the dash facing off as shown in the photo below. As you can see in the photo I also have the doghouse removed. That is not necessary but does give better access to the stuff behind the radio like XM receiver. Our XM receiver was just hanging so I tied it up.

[Bob Nodine]

Doghouse removed. You can see the XM receiver hanging here in this photo. Sometimes I think pride but be an ancient behavior that no longer exists.

[10scDust]

I recently had to address a problem with our Axerra radio also. As Bob noted, the dash cover needs removed to access the radio for removal, for whatever reason.

I want to note here, the dash cover needs to be pulled back enough for the access you need. You do not have to disconnect everything on that panel so you can set it aside.

[MiniBike Mikes Garage]

Ok, Thank you Bob and 10scDust! I played with the faceplate for a while and could not figure out how to remove the plastic trim piece, to get to the unit. I’ll try removing the dash this weekend. Any hints for the easiest removal of dash cover? Pull up / down / straight out?

[ericmac450]

Straight out, and from memory you will have to do a combination of lowering the steering wheel and gear shifter to totally remove it.

[MiniBike Mikes Garage]

Originally Posted by ericmac450

Straight out, and from memory you will have to do a combination of lowering the steering wheel and gear shifter to totally remove it.

Thanks! 👍🏻

[Elite Washington]

You do need to move the steering and shifter around. Go to an auto parts store and get the plastic trim removal tools. It’s not a must have but does make it easier.

[Cakeman]

Not sure if anyone has seen something like this (PDF attachment) as you are rewiring your radios. I know some are plug n play, but this may or may not help.
I know a lot of threads on here for changing out radios. I just figure I have a bigger wish of "things" and I stream music anyway and have a external monitor that was a very easy wire, but I enjoy reading what you are all doing. So thanks as if I do, I have a list of pre-tested radios.
Check out the attachment